Moms should stay home

Moms should stay home
By MICHAEL COREN
Toronto Sun
February 25, 2006

The president of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers, announced this week that he will resign from his position at the end of this academic year. This became almost inevitable after he made a speech last winter claiming "innate differences" between the sexes may well explain why more men succeed in math and sciences than do women.

Not the most radical statement in history, perhaps, but bold enough to make him a hated figure on campuses and a punching bag for radical feminists.

I don't really know if there is a different aptitude for science between men and women and don't particularly care. I do know, however, that a woman's place is in the home.

There, it's been said. The unthinkable has been uttered. I can only wonder what the various highly intelligent women who edit my column are saying as they read this, but that's hardly the point. A woman's place is in the home.

No, not every woman and not every home. But one major reason society has lost much of its stability, grace and decorum is because so many women with children have been urged to flee the "incarceration" of the family for the "freedom" of the office.

Obviously there are many women who are not mothers to whom this does not apply and also many mothers who are obliged to find employment so as keep the family together. The objection here is to the knee-jerk assumption that somehow it is natural and admirable for women to be in the paid workforce.

There is no compelling case that the world would be a better place if more women were lawyers, bankers, soldiers or engineers. There are many such arguments, however, that the world would be a far better place if more women were mothers. Which means more than the mere act of procreation. It means devotion, sacrifice and time. Not quality time, just time. Lots of it. It means refusing to accept that self-esteem can only come through a boss, water cooler gossip and a generous pension scheme.

Yes, of course, fathers are a vital part of any family and most of the gun violence in our cities has far more to do with absence of dads than the presence of guns. But a mother is unique and irreplaceable.

Nobody is forcing women to become moms, but if they do they should take their new job seriously and not pretend it is some hobby or part-time occupation. Instead, we have created a situation where many women are embarrassed to admit that they are at home with their kids.

Recently, a Tory MP told me, in a spasm of political correctness, that Canada needed more women in Parliament. I asked him why, and he reacted as if he'd never been asked the question before. Which, of course, he probably hadn't.

I continued: "Could it be argued that raising a child to be a respectful, intelligent, moral and good person is just slightly more important than sitting in a building in Ottawa and obeying the orders of some second-rate prime ministerial assistant?"

He called me an idiot. Which may be true, but it does not obscure the point: We've declared war on motherhood in the name of a better, healthier society and declared war on family in the name of women's liberty.

So the president of Harvard feels he has to resign because he dared to raise an interesting question. We can only wonder what his mom would have said. Chances are that it would have been something wonderful. Mothers are like that.